Homemade Smelly Playdough - Or Another Use for Kool-Aid

Shayla convinced me that she was in desperate need of new playdough because her old stuff was getting too hard (that's what happens when you leave it out, boys & girls).

Anyway, she's really into this arts and crafts time that we've been doing daily so we got the old craft cookbook (The Little Hand Art Book) out and concocted this stuff.

Here's the recipe I use for playdough the consistency of store bought playdough.

1 c. flour
1/2 c. salt
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 Tbs. cooking oil
1 c. water

Add your choice of food color, kool aid (for a fragrant dough)and/or glitter (for a textured dough). On this particular batch, we chose to use some blue blast koolaid that I recently had to buy to get free planter's cashews.

Mix ingredients in saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until dough leaves side of pan. Then remove from pan and store in plastic baggie or container. (I like to recycle cake frosting containers for playdough).

We spent the afternoon playing with her playdough toys, my cookie cutters, rolling it into a snake and cutting with a plastic knife (good fine motor exercise). She put it into my cake decorating tube used several tips and squeezed it out (*Warning: Only do this with NEW playdough - trust me, I know).

We also like to give playdough and a small bag of cookie cutters, plastic knife, etc. as a gift. What mother wouldn't love for their little darlings to bring playdough home?

Do you use a different recipe? What other concoctions have you made with your kids? Please share!